#fictional friday

Welcome back to Fictional Friday, where I recommend items from Newberry Digital Collections to fictional characters. I'm currently focusing on iconic librarians, and you'd be hard pressed to find a librarian more iconic than Rupert Giles of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame.

British rebel turned high school librarian turned magic shop owner, Giles has an academic and practical interest in magic and demonology (and quite a few forms of combat).

My choice for Giles is obvious: the Book of Magical Charms. While this little manuscript may not actually have much relevance to the dark arts, if this were an episode of Buffy, Giles would discover the secret to beating the latest demon in this book. Or maybe the book would set the latest demon free. Dealer's choice?

Read the Book of Magical Charms here

Welcome back to Fictional Friday, where I recommend items from Newberry Digital Collections to fictional characters. I'm currently focusing on iconic librarians, and in honor of next week's finale, today we're talking about Dimension 20's Ayda Aguefort.

What to get for everyone's favorite immortal teen autistic lesbian wizard librarian? Ayda spent years studying the stars on Leviathan so that she would know where the floating pirate city was going. This cosmography, astronomy, and geography textbook from the 1400s has information about both the skies and the seas to inform her study.

Of course, Ayda didn't know that every time she looked up at the sky, the meteors she sent declaring her love for Fig were already on their way. I wonder if those meteors show up anywhere in this book's diagrams? Pretty cool.

Read La sfera here

Welcome back to Fictional Friday, where I recommend items from Newberry Digital Collections to fictional characters. I'm currently focusing on iconic librarians, which brings me to the icon of my childhood: Evelyn Carnahan from The Mummy.

Evy may have accidentally resurrected a homicidal mummy, but she's also never done anything wrong, ever. I would share this 1565 map of northeastern Africa and part of the Middle East with her. I think she would enjoy analyzing the interpretative geography and appreciate the artistic approach taken to representing the setting.

Study the map for yourself here

Welcome back to Fictional Friday, where I recommend items from Newberry Digital Collections to fictional characters. I'm currently focusing on iconic librarians, and what could be more iconic than being known only as The Librarian?

The librarian of the Unseen University on the Discworld was once human, but after being magically transformed into an orangutan, has resisted all attempts to turn him back. He's so good at his job that he kept it post-transformation, now with significantly improved physical abilities.

I might offer him a magic-related book like I gave to Giles, but I think the Librarian already has every magical book he can stand. Instead, I'll give him what I think what truly make him happy: giant bananas.

Some bananas, 1923

This comes from the Bill Lende collection of tall tale postcards, which are about 1500 comedically exaggerated images from the early 20th century. Quite a few of them deal with oversized produce, which I can only assume was some kind of 1920s meme.

View the Bill Lende collection of tall tale postcards

Welcome to the first edition of Fictional Friday, where I recommend items from Newberry Digital Collections to fictional characters. In honor of National Library Workers Day on April 9, I'm starting this series with some iconic librarians. I had to start with the most famous Newberry librarian: Henry DeTamble from The Time Traveler's Wife.

The subject of a novel and multiple screen and stage adaptations (including the recent HBO Max series starring Theo James, which was filmed partially at the Newberry), Henry has chrono-impairment and involuntarily travels through time. As much as I'd like to recommend a collection item that can help his condition, I think the best I can offer him is a slice of home. The Time Traveler's Wife mentions several items that the Newberry really holds, including The Game and Playe of the Chesse from 1482. Henry thinks of this item when he dreams about giving a collection presentation to some local college students.

Luckily you don't have to travel through time, or even travel to Chicago, to see one of the earliest books printed in English.

View The Game and Playe of the Chesse

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Abby Muir knows her plan. She knows she is going to get down to the underworld and get her answers. But no one else can know she plans to go save her friend. For now, she hides what she plans to do. For now, she pretends to have hope without her.

Daily writing promptList five things you do for fun.View all responses “What?” Something in my face must have amused my apparent therapist, he leaned on his elbows and repeated his request.“Come on Abby, you’re a bright kid. What are five things you do for fun? Surely there must be something outside of school and your internship. You’ve told me about El’s painting, your mom’s novels and art…